EPIPHANIES
Macedonia's Tragedy Masquerading as Farce

Nine
months ago, Macedonia was known for being the only part of
the former socialist Yugoslav federation to gain independence
without a war; for having a bitter dispute with Greece over
its name, and with Bulgaria over its ethnic identity; for
sheltering hundreds of thousands of Albanians who left Kosovo
during NATO's 1999 air assault, and serving as a logistical
base for NATO's occupation of southern Balkans; and for its
superb food and textile products.

Two
days from now, Macedonia is supposed to celebrate its tenth
birthday as an independent nation. If the Sobranie,
the Parliament, succumbs to pressure
and blackmail from both NATO and the Albanian bandits, the
only thing that will be celebrated this September 8 will be
its funeral.

Macedonia
has been flayed alive, then accused of suicide. Its people
have been stripped of their ethnic identity, nationhood and
even their right to life and property. Albanian thugs control
swathes of its territory while pretending to disarm. German
tanks rumble through its landscape again, after sixty
years, while British paratroopers stand at their side and
pretend to be gathering weapons from the bandits they helped
train.

LEAVE?
WE'RE JUST GETTING STARTED!

The
farcical operation "Essential Harvest" is essential
in only one regard: to convince the citizenry of the soi-disant
"international community" that their governments
honestly intended to stay in Macedonia for only 30 days and
help the "peace process" there. Alas, cruel fate
has forced
the brave defenders of democracy to stay much, much longer,
because peace has been so elusive. Yet what did they expect?
As daily images from Northern Ireland, Israel and now Macedonia
keep proving, peace process is the exact opposite of
peace.

Denizens
of Imperial lands may be such complete morons as to believe
this claptrap, their rulers certainly know better. In a shockingly
rare display of honesty, a British
Defense Ministry source told The Scotsman on Monday,
"This mission was a way of getting in. Once you're on
the ground it's much easier to justify staying." For
someone who has seen the slow creeping infiltration of NATO
into Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, this statement should be
quite enough.

DEATH
BY DESCRIPTION

However
many times it has been said before, it needs to be said again:
none of this would be possible without a powerful and committed
propaganda apparatus. Slow to react at first, it is a terrifying
sight when operating in full gear. Day after day, it churns
out stories that are at best only illusions of truth, at worst
pure, unadulterated lies. Who, what, where, when and how are
usually drowned in the sea of editorial
guidance, which seeks to present a politically correct
version of the "why."

Thus
Macedonia's Prime Minister, top policeman and even chairman
of the Parliament are smeared
as "hard-liners," "nationalists," even
"certified
hardliners" and "ultra-hardliners,"
in an effort to bolster the subservient President Boris Trajkovski
at their expense. This is the same President who invited foreign
"mediators" to compose an ultimatum to his own government,
invited foreign troops to occupy his country, and sold his
people for hundreds of millions
of dollars in aid, none of which will ever materialize.
No matter. All that makes him a "moderate," and
all those who see something wrong with this picture are… "certified
ultra-nationalist hardliners" perhaps?

RIPPLES
ON THE SEA OF FATE

Why,
then, are Georgievski and others still going along with NATO's
nefarious scheme? Why is everyone in the Balkans so pathetically
willing to do NATO's bidding, almost always at their own expense?
For answers, look just across the Macedonian border to the
northwest, and some two and a half years in the past.

"We
should not play with NATO's authority," said Georgievski
in his bitter
address to the Sobranie, in which he urged the
delegates to ratify the Treaty of Ohrid despite its treasonous
implications. He knows, as everyone should, what happens to
those who defy that authority. NATO's power comes out of missile
tubes and off the bomb racks, from legions of obedient reporters,
millions of dollars in bribes, and millions of willing servants
throughout the world. This power set a haunting example when
it pulverized the Serbs and turned them into a pathetic, servile
rabble.

SURRENDER,
OR I'LL SUE

Another
reason could be that Macedonia's leaders might be afraid of
ending up like the Serb leadership, imprisoned in a Dutch
castle at the mercy of NATO's judges and prosecutors, whose
only rule is "guilty until proven innocent  and we
dare you to try!" Where else in the world can anyone
be tried multiple times on the same charges by a self-appointed
court, given harsher sentence after appealing, accused
by anonymous, protected witnesses and already convicted in
the media before the arrest, let alone trial?

The
Hague Harpy is currently roaming
Belgrade, asking for more heads for her collection, but
she may well soon descend upon those "hardliners"
who just can't seem to get with the program in Macedonia.
Then again, Georgievski and others should not worry 
if it so desires, the Inquisition will come for them regardless
of what they do. Even without the examples of Croatia and
Bosnia, Macedonians ought to know that submissiveness to NATO
has never been a guarantee of protection.

THE
MARCH TO MINSK

Rightfully
important as they are to their residents, who are most affected
by imperial meddling and the incessant pandering of local
collaborators, Macedonia and the Balkans are but a strand
in the vast web of the Empire's policy. Just as the Empire's
experiences in Latin America, the Middle East and Afghanistan
were used in staging massacres and arming "insurgents"
in Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo and now Macedonia, experiences
from the Balkans are now being applied in other corners
of the world.

The
Great Belgrade Experiment, which produced the 18-headed creature
now supposedly in charge of the hemorrhaging Yugoslavia, is
now set to be replicated in Belarus.
A day after Macedonia's moribund anniversary, this nation
is supposed to hold elections, in which the Empire hopes to
topple the current President, Aleksandr Lukashenko.

Geographically
speaking, Belarus is as far from the Balkans as France. Belarus
is, however, no older than Macedonia in terms of statehood.
For the past decade, it has been an exception to the rule
in Eastern Europe, surviving as an oasis
of peace and relative prosperity as other former socialist
countries slid into a social, political and economic morass.
Unlike her neighbors, Belarus did not sell off its economy
to foreign predators, nor did it pledge allegiance to NATO
 quite the contrary, it expressed a desire to rejoin Russia
in a federation! Belarus did not attack anyone; there have
been no wars on its soil in the past decade, nor has it expressed
territorial ambitions or aggressive tendencies. Its only sin
is that President Lukashenko refuses to bow to the "international
community" and its notions of "democracy" and
"human rights," which have so devastated the rest
of Eastern Europe.

Now
Lukashenko is being targeted for removal, the same way Slobodan
Milosevic was targeted in 2000.

What
happened in the Balkans is already being used as a template
for other parts of the world. Yesterday Serbia, today Macedonia,
tomorrow (it is planned) Belarus. After all, they are all
"Slavs" to the Western media. Who will be next?
Fill in the blank.

AGAINST
THE FALL OF NIGHT

As
the macabre spectacle in Macedonia continues, one is left
with an exasperating question: if this is happening despite
everything that was said and written about Kosovo, everything
that was said and written about Bosnia, everything that has
been said and written about Macedonia itself… is there hope?

The
answer should, perhaps, lie in history. It is not for nothing
that the Balkans is known as "graveyard of empires."
Its people have shrugged off the Communists, defeated the
Nazis, broken the teeth of the Hohenzollerns
and smashed the scepters of the Hapsburgs  not to mention
surviving five centuries of oppression under the Ottoman Turks.

Perhaps
this time, this particular empire bit off more than it can
chew.

Nebojsa Malic left his home in Bosnia after the Dayton
Accords and currently resides in the United States. During
the Bosnian War he had exposure to diplomatic and media affairs
in Sarajevo, and contributed to the Independent. As a historian who specializes in international relations
and the Balkans, Malic has written numerous essays on the
Kosovo War, Bosnia and Serbian politics, many of which have
been published by the Serbian Unity Congress. His
exclusive column for Antiwar.com appears every Thursday.

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